Published February 22, 2021
The Javett-UP curatorial team has been hard at work preparing for two new exhibitions, which will open in March and April respectively.
We will be hosting a retrospective exhibition of Willem Boshoff’s work titled, Word Woes, opening on Saturday 13 March. Boshoff is an internationally acclaimed conceptual artist who uses unconventional tactics to challenge the use of language as both an instrument of cultural identity and of cultural exclusion. He describes his works, whether sculptural or graphic, as conceptual books and he challenges us to ‘read’ them. Viewed in the long term, his work presents a critical perspective on the social and political reality of our time.
The exhibition title, Word Woes (taken from a signature work), is understood in two languages: English and Afrikaans. In either language the two words look identical, but their meaning is very different, signalling a Willem Boshoff well known and loved, to quote the artist directly, as a “linguistic terrorist”. Read in English, Word Woes speaks to difficult issues around words and language. Read in Afrikaans, the same words liberate, asking us to let go and be wild.
In April, we look forward to opening Handle With Care, featuring selected works from the South 32 Collection. This collection was first established in 1994 and was one of the first to collect evenly and from the onset across South Africa’s racialised demographics and gendered subjectivities. Although the collection marks the country’s crucial political turn, it holds works that ‘documented’ other political turns, including the Sharpeville Massacre, the 1976 student uprising and other historical markers.
The exhibition of selected works from the South 32 Collection borrows its title from a work by Johannesburg-based artist Kagiso Pat Mautloa, Handle With Care (1994). This title allows us to centre one of the most important values of the Javett-UP, care. In this way the exhibition firmly situates the idea of an art centre as a public space of care as well as its role in taking care of art collections that were previously semi-private by facilitating their access to the broader public. Handle With Care is composed of four themes: Rituals of Self-Preservation, Dreamscapes, Construction of Masculinities and Abstraction.
We are excited and privileged to be able to host these works and we look forward to seeing you at the Javett-UP very soon.